Long Hostel Poems

I Know The Truth
by Marina Tsvetaeva
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I know the truth?abandon lesser truths!
There's no need for anyone living to struggle!
See? Evening falls, night quickly descends!
So why the useless disputes?generals, poets, lovers?

The wind...

Read More

{Poet’s Note : I wrote this poem for the passing of my very dear friend & comrade, Cecyl Esau, Umkhonto we Sizwe Commander in 2021, as a contribution to his memorial service. Cecyl was given...

Read More

Headlights messaged through midnight windows 
Curtainless glass unable to subdue the urgency 
Car obtained in street nearby was theirs temporarily
Three hour drive to ship leaving island next morning

Two sixteen year old girls barely registered surprise...

Read More

The Gospel according to The Bluesman
Gianni watched the clouds move in
Closed his window for the rain
It was spring and that meant
That it was gonna storm again

He looked out at the street outside
He saw a man...

Read More

May 29, 1957: …have to think about getting a thesis director…know no professor yet in the department…someone suggested i get hold of Derek Fogg for an intro to the big guns in the philosophisches Seminar…can't...

Read More

Italian version. (continued from first part)
Tale è l’orror  che assale la mia mente
Di quanto ho visto e rivissuto prima
Da ridurla al silenzio più opprimente.
Pian piano poi risal verso la cima
Creando ancora immagini e illusioni
Senza...

Read More

Mark Hurlin Shelton is a Poet from Cape Town South Africa, born in October 1967. He was raised by his grandparents in Three Anchor Bay, near Sea Point, where he attended his first schools: Ellerton...

Read More

A boy named Joseph lives in an old city,
But his family lives so far from his living place.
He came here for study purposes.
Next year he will complete his graduation from the local university.
Now he is...

Read More

Unquotable quotes: Witch-Doctors and Tribal Headmen – XXV (Part Two)

Which Asian “King” would crown himself “Emperor” during an elaborate theatrical ceremony while facing and exhorting the ruins of his Illustrious Ancestor’s capital?
Which commoner army captain...

Read More

Fears Chains (Haiku)

First line 5 syllables
Second line 7 syllables
Third line 5 syllables
(7 syllables)

Caught within a snare
The paralyzing peepshow
Seduces you there
(Making itself intimate)
(undressing for your favor)
(Fairydust of lunacy)
Scrolls, parchments, bark, at the moon)
(Self fulfilling prophecy)
(Demons of...

Read More

Ah, the life surreal.  Nothing like wearing the weirdness like a greatcoat as I sip bad hotel coffee and muse over where the last few years have taken me while watching ice flow around old...

Read More

Zotëri Count Dracula
is a terrible, Transylvanian host
Mister Tarantula Fangs serves watered down pâté:
Fermented, sour liver compost

I know, 
because my Planet Terror peep Tarantino
said so

Vladdie’s batty bandë
campy lip sync way too much on the fly
Playing air...

Read More

The building is imposing, massive and fearful,
     built in 1862 as a jail and gallows for criminals;
conditions for the inmates were inhumane and appalling,
       ...

Read More

Blind Ambitions Of Glory

The daily news was splashed with a  sweet picture of an beaming  16 years-old lass..
As Felicia Mikat greeted an awakening  nation today with her athletic medals of world class..

Achieving...

Read More

Back in my day shell suits were the latest fashion 
And I made sure I wore my diamond socks with a passion 
The only sky I knew was the one up above my head 
No...

Read More

I was born in a world of poverty and soiled life of a third world country
The way I lived till I was five years of age was walls of boundary
These walls had towers of guards...

Read More

A PACKET OF LIES

I will build houses on the oceans
And you shall have no cause to
Cry again like those without shelter;
I will build an Estate and make it
Free of charge for all masses.
I shall declare...

Read More

 "Nicholas Street Jail is a real place"

The building is imposing, massive and fearful,
built in 1862 as a jail and gallows for criminals;
the conditions were inhumane and appalling,
on the top floor was death row with...

Read More

PERSERVERANCE BREEDS SUCCESS

Jss One was an insult, I cried
Like time should hit full stop,
My breakfast was sweet without
Salt,
My parents tasted like this evil
Citrus,
I continued to hide like Air Force
Was only for my seniors.

Jss Two arrived...

Read More

I was working late night,
It was ten when I stepped out of my office,
The monsoon had already started its show,
Wild storms and copious showers,
Thick clouds of spooky figures,
Rustling of leaves and swirling of trees,
Shattering of...

Read More

I knew an old wise Angel
Who was generous with his’ time
He could make anyone feel special
Until the stairway to heaven he did climb

He took me to my first confession
And had my rosary beads blessed
He introduced...

Read More

An abandoned cottage holds
                           remnants of secrets unexplored.
 ...

Read More

I used to find sweet solace in fantasizing about leaving home,
Imagining about the deceptive freedom I will have when I'll be on my own.

This thought became my escape route while quarrelling with my parents,
when I...

Read More

In the beginning there was a lonely word but soon after
            there was no room at the meagre hostel for the saviour

Sanguine hopes flash-flooded...

Read More

On the news today

The headline storyline was presented
and reported as follows

In Liverpool today some local right wing
protestors who's arms are up in flame's 
replacing pitchforks for placards 

Which was later retracted in place
of rabble of...

Read More